I don't have much time to write this since I should be in bed in a few minutes but tonight, I fried up some chicken. First I defrosted it in warm water and added some lemon pepper marinade to the water. Now, I don't know if that's how you're supposed to do. In fact, I'm pretty sure its not. But that's what I've done the two times I've cooked before. I think it imparts the lemon pepper flavor to the chicken. I have vague recollections of my dad doing this before he grilled chicken. Or was it that he defrosted it before?
Well, I don't have time to do that.
One of my fellow LTs came over (we live in a dorm basically) and told me to try some of his beef. It was tender and delicious. Exactly the kind of taste I would like to get to. I asked him how he got it to taste like that and he said he added teriyaki sauce and soysauce into the pan.
Ah...you cook the meat in the sauce. Brilliant.
So, I added some more of the lemon pepper and some olive oil into my pan and after cutting up my now defrosted (and decidedly lemony peppery chicken), I tossed it in. Now, a note about olive oil- I don't know why I added it. For some reason, I think my meat will stick to the pan if I don't add it despite the presence of the lemon pepper marinade. Also, despite the fact that my pan is, you know, non stick. But you know, its just one of those things you do- if you're frying something, you put oil in it. Right?
Given that it took me half an hour to defrost this one piece of chicken and another 5 minutes to cut it up, the cooking was decidedly quick (this was my fourth time frying up chicken). What did I use to flip the pieces of chicken? Salad tongs and chopsticks. I don't really have anything else to use.
I dumped some left over white rice onto the pan towards the end of the chicken frying and this was my dinner.
It is an excellent illustration of what I can do. Fry something. And without any knowledge of basic culinary principles. Also, make rice. This is about it. I don't know how to make pasta or soup or even something relatively sophisticated like boiling a sweet potato (I see them every time I go to the commissary and I always want to buy them but again, I don't know what I'd do with it).
The food, in the end, was decent. I wish it was hotter but I think I cooked the chicken the right amount (so that it was browning vs. the bland white it was when I first fried it up).
40 minutes of effort. 5 minutes of mediocre fare. A promising start.
Cooking meat in oil always makes it taste better (at least to me). You can use canola oil, olive oil, or butter - try adding it to the pan and let it heat up for 2-3 mins on medium heat before you add the meat (Using a half butter/half olive oil mixture makes for especially savory flavor). I also like to add certain flavorings to meat right when I'm starting to cook it - onion and garlic are delicious when you're browning ground beef/turkey. Even adding pepper to meat while it's browning brings out a lot of flavor.
ReplyDeleteAs for sweet potatoes, I like baking them in the oven an hour or so (remember to stick a fork in them beforehand) then eating them with some brown sugar. Kind of a southern way to eat them, but they're delicious and very good for you :)
So apparently I like food.
One thing you can do is put your chicken in the fridge so it's unfrozen but still chilled, and then place it in a plastic bag with your sauce/marinade, and mix it around. My dad does this and the meat absorbs the flavor really nicely.
ReplyDeleteGood eatin'